The Bermuda Sector
by AnneLions
Summary: Ships keep disappearing in an area of space nobody wants and no one knows why. The Enterprise, of course, is sent to investigate the most recent disappearance.
1. The Bermuda Sector

It was something rarer than dilithium. Rarer than a smiling Vulcan. An entire sector that nobody would claim. Oh, sure, there were colony worlds in this particular sector of space; a half dozen of them. But the Federation, Romulans, Klingons... none of them wanted to claim this sector. It wasn't that there wasn't anything of value; on the contrary, all of the worlds were lush and rich with precious minerals, totaly sutable to most sentient life forms.   
  
The planets were populated with assorted proportions of members of the three empires that did not want them. They belonged to nobody but the colonists. Nice places to live, if one didn't mind their neighbor being Klingon and the elected officials being Romulan but one got used to things like that. Once you did, it was almost strange to think things would be any other way.  
  
So where was this sector? Why didn't anyone want it? It wasn't that it was far from any particular border, on the contrary it was nearly enveloped on all sides. On the surface, there wasn't anything that out of the ordinary about this part of space. Mostly main sequence yellow and orange stars, similar to Sol, with one red giant; there were certainly no black holes.   
  
Nothing to explain the multitude of ship disappearances. Nobody wanted this part of space because they couldn't patrol it, they couldn't afford the ship losses.  
  
Officially cataloged in Federation databases as sector 0364xz.431b, to most people it was known simply as 'The Bermuda Sector'. 


	2. USS Cyclops

Onboard the freighter USS Cyclops, Captain Daniel Forest mused over the irony of the name of his ship. The original Cyclops, the one this ship was named after, had disappeared in the 20th century into the Bermuda Triangle on Earth. Though he generally tended not to believe in superstions, Captain Forest couldn't help but be nervous every time he had to travel through this stellar Bermuda Triangle. After all, hundreds of ships that went in never came out. Then again, many more went in and came back out; he was proof of that.  
  
If nobody ever came out again, he wouldn't be here with his shipload of supplies and headed to Brildah, one of the colonies out in this sector. Interrupting the Captain's thoughts was the navigator, Lieutenant Jessica Bradley, "Now entering Bermuda Sector, Captain, approximately one and a half days to our destination with our current speed."  
  
"Good, good. Thank you." Forest nodded and went back to thinking. He wondered what had happened to those ships that had disappeared, pondering over different possibilities. A random malfunction here and there or pirates, occassionally accounted for a lost ship, but not always.   
  
As he sat thinking, he suddenly realized that his communications officer was speaking to him now.  
  
"...picking up a distress signal, straight ahead. Judging from it's strength, it can't be very far away but it's filled with static. I'm having a hard time picking up the details."  
  
Captain Forest turned to Ensign Johnson, "Who's it from?" As the Ensign bent to the task of trying to filter the message out of the static, Forest turned to his science officer, "Readings on any ships in the vicinity, hostile or otherwise." Muttering under his breath, he added, "I hope it's not pirates."  
  
"Nothing, sir, no ships at all." Commander Tormil answered almost immeditaly.  
  
Before the Captain could ask any questions, Johnson gasped and went pale, "S-sir, it sounds like... it's from us!"  
  
"What?" Forest's nervousness from before suddenly increased tenfold and he wanted out of here, "Helm, 180 degrees. Warp 7." Mere seconds later, before anyone could change course, the ship was rocked as if from an explosion. And again.  
  
There was just enough time to activate the distress beacon before the lights shifted, dimed and finally went out. Silence took over as the crew also blacked out like the lights.  
  
Soon there was nothing to suggest that a ship named Cyclops had ever been where it was. Nothing, except for echos of a distress call. 


	3. Orders

Note: If anyone could tell me how to get HTML to work for my story, I'd be grateful. It looks fine on my computer but when I upload, it turns into garbage. All my tags end up looking like the following: i Ugh. If it makes any difference, I've got XP and use Notepad to write. Anyhow, now that you've read that, back to the story!  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Space-time is like a river. Flowing, carrying things in the current. Sometimes these things collide, break apart. Somtimes they are torn apart by the current itself. Some are claimed by those whirlpools known as black holes. But many head downstream, largely somewhat unaffected by the maelstrom around them, unable to control where they go and when. Unless that thing happens to be a starship, capable of setting it's own destiny.  
  
One such ship, otherwise known as USS Enterprise NCC-1701, was patroling along the Romulan Neutral Zone in this particular chunk of space-time.  
  
Kirk stared boredly at the viewscreen, deciding that this had to be the most uninteresting patrol he'd ever been on. Usually, there was the excitement of at least one Romulan ship challenging their right to be there. They knew very well that the Enterprise had every right to be there as long as it stayed on it's side of the Zone, so there was no shooting. Still, it was a diversion from the tedium of doing nothing else. But now, two weeks worth of patrols and all was quiet.  
  
"Captain, I'm receiving a recorded message from Starbase 24." said Uhura, breaking the relative silence on the bridge and nearly making Kirk jump in the process. Two weeks of nothing will do that to a man's nerves.  
  
Kirk was glad for the break in monotony, however slight, "On screen, Lieutenant."  
  
Uhura's fingers ran over her console and the starfield on the viewscreen was replaced with that of an Admiral sitting behind a desk. He began speaking, "Captain Kirk, we have just received a distress call from the freighter USS Cyclops in sector 0364xz.431b."  
  
"Facinating." That, of course, came from Spock. The Admiral continued on, the recording unaware of the interruption, "We want you to go investigate and, if possible, recover the Cyclops. The Saratoga and Kasimar will be there to take your place in two days. They will provide backup if necessary. You are to leave your position immediately upon receiving this message. Admiral Fitzgerald out." The screen blanked out and returned to the original starfield view.  
  
Uhura pressed her hand to the receiver in her ear, "Captain, coordinates for the last known position of the Cyclops are coming through now."  
  
Kirk nodded, "Acknowledge receipt of the transmission and notify all senior staff there's to be a meeting in the briefing room in 20 minutes. Helm, set a course for those coordinates, warp 6."  
  
As the crew moved to comply, they were completely unaware of what was lurking around the bend in that river known as space-time. 


End file.
